In a Place Called Hell
by smoke and steel
Summary: A different side of the Massacre. The rivalry between the Senju and Uchiha clans becomes the cause of a civil war in a new ruined Konoha painted red and blue with the fan of Konoha's Sharingan wielders.


In a Place Called Hell Stumbling upon a revolution

'_In times of tyranny and injustice, when law oppresses the people, the outlaw takes his place in history'_

_-Robin Hood_

**KONOHA. THE UPRISING. **

**AN UNFORGIVING CIVIL WAR HAS BEEN RAGING SINCE THE SUCCESSFUL COUP DE E'TAT BY THE UCHIHA CLAN. THE REBELLION HAS BEEN HIT THE HARDEST BY THE WAR OF FANS AND ARE LITTLE MORE THAN OUTLAWS IN THEIR OWN HOME.**

**HOWEVER, THERE IS STILL HOPE IN THE FORM OF A RAGTAG TEAM OF YOUNG AND OLD SHINOBI LED BY UCHIHA ITACHI AND THE FOUR CAPTAINS WHO ARE STRUGGLING TO RECLAIM KONOHA AGAINST OVERWHELMING ODDS…**

The red and blue fan was a sordid reminder of who Konoha really belonged to Itachi thought as he looked down on the sleeping city. He was confident in the knowledge that no one could see him, wrestling heroically with the raw gaping guilt long destined to be his, yet perched as silent and predatorily as the hawk on the ruins of the Library of Scrolls.

Sighing silently the shinobi took one last cursory glance at this famliar yet unfamiliar place, apparently not finding what he was looking for before disappearing in a cloud of ash.

Like a phantom, leave no trace behind.

_Ebony eyes flashed angrily before the melanic storm was quelled swiftly and without a thought. He hated politics._

_The intelligent gaze of the young boy (could he even be called such?) rested on each person in the secret meeting room beneath the Nakano shrine. Each member, all equally scorned with the exception of his mother and cousin. Looking up from his clenched hands he listened blankly until words that ran down his spine and made his back go rigid echoed hollowly in his ear._

"_- It is time to take back what we have lost" Murmured agreement spread throughout the room; listening intently Itachi made sure, hoping desperately, that those words were not what he thought they were._

_His father's words gained an impassioned edge "We must teach those Senju that we are not to be trifled with! Take our rightful place as the ruling elite!" Rousing cheers answered the cry and Itachi felt nauseated at his clan's arrogance and greed._

_How could he have been so stupid? Naively ignoring his clan's grievances. No wonder they had pushed him so hard for excellence; he would become their tool in a coup that would leave Konoha weakened and vulnerable._

_Their rebellion would leave a field of corpses behind, twisted tortured bodies with empty blaming eyes. Skeletal fingers pointed at him… NO! He would stop them. Returning to the surface world the heir heard the dismissal through a great fog and shot out the door. The embodiment of the clan's ambition stood braced against the night air before leaping like a wraith into the night, towards the Hokage Tower._

Perhaps he had ignored the signs, too caught up in the personal hell that was the ANBU Black Ops. Perhaps he had not seen what he did not wish to see, after all he knew the price of treason. Although he was a genius Uchiha Itachi had not seen what should have been the most obvious.

_It began as all wars did, both sides counting grievances and amassing more and more resentment towards each other until finally in one night of blood and retribution, open warfare broke out._

_The previous months had been torturous to Itachi, hearing the empty assurances of the distracted Sandaime who was ill equipped to handle a rebellion of this scale as well as run the country._

_Taking the kunai from the pouch tied to his thigh he stared at the cool metal before turning his eyes away as the kunai zinged through the air into heart of the painted symbol on the wall and wincing minutely when he heard the stone cracking from the force of the throw. They were after all his family._

_Unnoticed a diamond tear slid down marble cheeks before the demonic eyes of his bloodline activated and he left his home and everything he knew behind to go to war._

_The knife sheathed in the family coat of arms left a clear message behind: he had joined the other side, and could no longer claim the name Uchiha. _

_In his desperate flight he never noticed his otouto's childish face and wide eyes watching from the shadows as he abandoned them…_

The gray skies of morning illuminated the rogue Uchiha's face with melancholy before he hid his sins behind the handsome mask.

He was not bothered by his isolation because he was always alone, and he always would be.


End file.
